Who? Reggie Fils-aime, the president at Nintendo of America. He kicks ass, takes names, and prevents localization of cool games.

The massive cult of personality that he's spawned on the Internet makes it a lot more fun to watch Nintendo in action. He's a fantastic quote machine, and he is generally very good at getting the company's philosophy across without saying much at all.

Who? Satoru Iwata. He has great hair. And he has shown rather legendary business acumen for much of his time as the President of Nintendo. But now that times are tough, we ask ourselves: Was he merely a three hit wonder, or is he simply playing around before going in for an explosive kill?

(as in, time to become privy to the information at hand about the thing that will be in your hand; the other possible meaning, the one you were probably thinking about, you sick sick person, likely applies as well)

DRC - Display Remote ControllerOfficial Aliases: "Subscreen", "The New Controller"GAF Aliases: Wii U Tablet ("WUT", the most common thing people said when they first saw it), uTab, uPad, WiiPad, padlet, UC (pronounced "uicy", but only likely to happen if HylianTom stages a takeover of NCL), "The Wii U's Controller", "SubCon"Capable of delivering fully-rendered, 480p images to your hands at 60fps. The system's gpu technically supports simultaneous output to four of them, but there are roadblocks on the way to making this happen for the end user. Has a sixth gen like layout with the following differences:* triggers not confirmed to be analog* face buttons likely not analog* analog directionals have just recently been confirmed to be actual analog sticks* A speaker and headphone port* accelerometer, gyrometer and magnetometer for orientation and motion sensing* That big honking resistive touch screen and a stylus* What is partly confirmed to be a TV remote style IR transmitter* A camera facing you which should have the capability of face tracking* A built-in sensor bar* A stand for when you use it as a sensor bar or as an accessory screen when using other controllers.* An NFC receiver to interact with properly chipped real world objects (apparently represented by a small square below the d-pad)* An unconfirmed small square next to the power button which could be a toggle to switch a one-display game from TV to controller

Note: Highly respected sources on this website claim that the analog directionals are "clicky".

Wii Remote Plus - You can use it to play virtual drums! Expected to be unchanged from the previous generation.

Nunchuk - Makes the classic Wii a split controller system, something we need more of for our aging, aching arms. Expected to be unchanged from the previous generation

Classic Controller Pro - Arguably the best sixth gen style controller, but here's hoping that it'll go truly wireless this time around. Expected to be unchanged from the previous generation

StreetPass device - You carry around this rumoured NFC-based "avatar" of your Wii U in your pocket, which allows the network to magically and dynamically interact with you as a player… somehow. Also could potentially be used for buy-and-run at retail stores, if Nintendo's clever enough.

Wii U - An external drive with some added circuitry, from the looks of it. Rumoured to contain:* Tri-core IBM "Power Architecture" processor, likely much more capable than that on the Xbox 360 but unlikely to ≥2x as fast in real world benchmarks. :O* Pretty impressive AMD gpu, though within a power and cost envelope suitable for smallish embedded devices. Early rumour suggested ≥ 1 TFLOPS performance, but this was based on poorly mistranslated speculation. Mid-to-high triple digit GFLOPS are now generally expected. BS Xbox 360 multiplier factor could be as high as π.* Memory, based on leaks, expected to be at least 1.5GB. Roughly 0.5GB is said to be reserved for the system's OS functions (an astonishingly high number, one never heard before for a home console), but this limiting number will likely decrease.* A small amount of internal flash, rumoured to be split between a ~512MB, purely system-accessed chip and a far larger chunk of hardware for storing saves and other digital content.* Expected capability for unlimited USB external hard drive expansion* Support for Blu-ray media (sans the license)* Also possible is the ability for games to run off of an SD card. This was reportedly used for systems at E3'11 and CES, but whether or not it becomes available for consumers is unknown.

Operating System: It's going to be quite impressive, with perhaps a ton of social features. We know little about it but have heard some very impressive murmurs from industry insiders

There may be some sort of Video on Demand, Pay Per View service

Retro's title? Probably not Zelda, probably not Metroid, certainly not Donkey Kong, probably not their own thing given the company's M.O. The only conclusion we can reach here is that Nintendo's just paying them to eat donuts.

Crytek UK? Damnit you guys, I'm all out of soul to sell, but you know what I want, and you know what I'd do for it! Anyway, one recent crazytown rumour suggested they were making a demo for the system but not a full-on game.

Confirmed titles:

1001 Spikes (developed by Nicalis, publisher unknown)Aliens Colonial Marines (developed by Gearbox Software, published by Sega)Assassin’s Creed III (developed by Ubisoft Montrea, published by Ubisoft)Avengers: Battle for the Earth (developed by Ubisoft Quebec, published by Ubisoft) - Might have been a slip in a press releaseBatman Arkham City (developed by Rocksteady Studios, published by Warner Bros. Interactive)Cloudberry Kingdom (developed by pwnee Studios)Darksiders II (developed by Vigil Games, published by THQ)DiRT (developed and published by Codemasters)Dragon Quest X Online (developed by Armor Project and Square Enix, published by Square Enix)F1 (developed and published by Codemasters)Ghost Recon Online (developed by Ubisoft Singapore, published by Ubisoft)Killer Freaks from Outer Space (developed by Ubisoft Montpellier, published by Ubisoft)Lego City Stories (developed by Traveller's Tales, published by Nintendo)Marvel Pinball (developed by Zen Studios, publisher unclear)Metro: Last Light (developed by 4A Games, published by THQ)Ninja Gaiden 3: Razor’s Edge (developed by Team Ninja, published by Tecmo-Koei)Pikmin 3 (developed by Nintendo EAD, published by Nintendo)Pinball Arcade (developed by FarSight Studios)Project CARS (developed by Slightly Mad Studios, publisher unknown)Rayman Legends (developed by Ubisoft Montpellier, published by Ubisoft)Super Smash Bros (developed by Project Sora probably with help from other teams, published by Nintendo)Untitled project by Monolith SoftwareUntitled Rabbids project (developed and published by Ubisoft)

And recent hubbub from folks such as Shane Satterfield (Editor in Chief from GameTrailers) as well as a few insiders here suggest that there is a very impressive number of yet-to-be-announced games coming for E3.

Multiple sources suggest that Google is working with Nintendo in some way, possibly in regards to their software layer (but nothing to do with Android).

And remember:

"I thought I would do a compilation of every quote I could find about the Wii U's graphics. Maybe it will give people a better idea of what to expect from this console. There's been so many quotes over the last year, and I wanted to compile a lot of them together. I didn't want to quote anyone who was an "unnamed source". These aren't in any particular order, but I tried to provide links and dates for most of them." - Oddduck (NeoGAF)

Shigeru Miyamoto - June 21, 2011

“We’re very sensitive, of course, to trying to do all of this at an appropriate price. So I don’t know that we would be able to sit here and say that it’s going to necessarily dramatically outperform the systems that are out now. It’s part of the balance that we strike in terms of trying to find entertainment that is new and unique.”

"Talking about the Wii U, it is going to be compatible with high-definition TV sets, which are now widespread and, with the graphics capabilities catching up to the general trend, some people consider it to be the ‘next-generation Wii.’ On the other hand, as far as graphics capabilities are concerned, there are already other hardware systems with similar functions. Therefore, we have designed the Wii U to be recognized as being different from any other hardware system."

"Miyamoto stressed that the company’s upcoming console won’t just be about improved visuals. However, he did seem to say that there will be some titles in which visuals will be important – including Zelda."

"As we will showcase the Wii U at E3 in June this year, the detailed announcements must wait until then, but we are aiming to make a system which shall not be forced into competing with the others where the contenders can fight only with massive developer resources and long development times as their weapons," he said.

"Looking at the software for home console systems, there are certainly the software titles for which very rich graphics must be reproduced on HD displays and which demand a large number of developers to spend a very long time to develop.

"It is one of the truths that a certain number of such software titles must be prepared, or the consumers will not be satisfied. But we do not think that any and all the software must be created in that fashion.

"When you look at Nintendo's software, extraordinary rich graphics, massive gameplay volume and astonishing rendition effects are not necessarily the appealing point. It is, in fact, important for us that our games are appealing in other ways as well."

He offered Nintendo's quirky Rhythm Heaven series as an example, insisting that, "if we had adopted rich photo-realistic graphics, it would have lost much of its appeal."

"It is not necessary for us to deploy a huge number of people in order to develop such games," he continued, stating that, more than ever, Nintendo is bringing in third parties when it does need to develop more graphically complex titles.

"When we need massive power and have a lack of internal resources, we collaborate with outside resources and pour necessary resources to where they are needed. We are increasing the frequency of working with outside developers where Mr. Miyamoto and our internal developers alone used to develop.

"According to the report, Harada doesn't think Nintendo is planning to enter the graphics race with the Wii U. Instead games will stand out courtesy of the touchscreen controller and the unique features it enables. "

"We do not focus on technology specs. We understand that people like to dissect graphics and processing power, but the experience of playing will always be more important than raw numbers."

Marvin Donald (Game Director - "Darksiders 2") - March 23, 2012

""So far the hardware's been on par with what we have with the current generations. Based on what I understand, the resolution and textures and polycounts and all that stuff, we're not going to being doing anything to up-rez the game, but we'll take advantage of the controller for sure."

"There is not much I can really talk about right now, but I think that the Wii U is a pretty powerful machine, which obviously means more resources, and means you can do a lot more. So the Wii U team is doing very well, we've been working with Nintendo and I think it's going to be a very exciting version of Darksiders but we want to keep the overall theme relatively consistent."

"When we asked Bonstead if he thought it was possible that the Wii U version of Darksiders II would be the best version of the game, he said, "Yeah, just because the hardware is more powerful and it will have some extra features that I think will actually be useful to people playing the game. With it’s controller, [the Wii U version of Darksiders II] might be the best version of the game."

""We've got the [Aliens: Colonial Marines] engine running on the Wii U, and as far as the console goes, you're going to see textures at a resolution that you haven't seen on [the current] generation," said Martel.

Things like the Wii U are becoming very sexy with what you can do with the controller, especially with what you're able to do with the motion tracker or whatever the sub gameplay you'd get to see on there. I think the machine itself will have one of the best looking versions of the game because they've got more RAM [and] they're late in the cycle so they've got this really great processor.

"We’ve been intrigued by what we’ve seen so far and are encouraging Nintendo to go as aggressively as they can afford with the performance specifications. We imagine that performance specifications are within affordable reach that would provide undeniable performance advantages over competitive platforms. Nintendo have a lot more experience than we do in managing the balance between performance and cost with their hardware, of course, so I do not want to be presumptuous."

""It's a really cool system -- it's pretty powerful. I want to be careful, because I don't want to risk any sensitive information that Nintendo's not ready to share yet, but in our experience it's a great system. I think it's a really nice bridge to the next generation. I think people will be surprised. I don't know off the top of my head how many of the specs they've released, so I want to be very careful not to jump the gun, but we're very pleased with the hardware. And even since they gave us our first alpha kit, our very first 'pre-prototype' development hardware that they kind of let us play around with, they've done so many things to make the platform better. So it's getting better for us as developers."

"Team Ninja's Fumihiko Yasuda and Yosuke Hayashi broke the industry-wide silence on Nintendo's next-gen console, claiming its "very easy to develop for... We're finding it very similar to develop for Wii U as for Xbox 360 and PS3."

"They've asked us what we would want from the hardware, and when we give them feedback we can see that they're definitely listening to it and making changes," said Hayashi. "The hardware is still constantly changing."

"Do you remember the Zelda demo they had on it? Would you not buy a Wii U just to play that? Of course you would. That's what Nintendo is all about. Their hardware is the software delivery service for their great content. That Zelda demo was gorgeous and we can do even more than that with Unreal Engine 3. I think it will do great."

That's the question we're asking now that Crytek founder Avni Yerli has confessed his love for the Nintendo Wii U's specs. That's right: he's actually excited over the hardware list, calling it "very good." That's excellent news from a development team whose notorious for bringing PC systems to their knees.\

"It's a challenge for designers, but once thought through it can add value, and that's what ultimately important," he told GamesIndustry in an interview. "Our guys in Nottingham, they are very happy with their tests on the dev kits and they're excited about it."

"Crytek's support for Wii U is definitely going to happen. We aren't showing it but we are pretty much running it already. We are expanding in many ways, and some of that is more announced than others.Kinect is major driver for future platforms as well, so Kinect support is important. Having basic Kinect support in the CryEngine is one thing, but I'm talking about really supporting it deeply. CryEngine is going to have deep support.

"Then there are other efforts towards supporting mobile and tablets, which we can only say we are working on. How far we have gone and what we mean is something I can't say more about now.""

Speaking to Destructoid, director of creative development Rasmus Højengaard said a Wii U release was "not on the cards". "I don't think it's going to be possible," he said. "Right now the launch platforms are PC, Xbox 360 and PS3, and I don't think it's on the cards to do a Wii U version."

"The short answer is yes [we have a better idea of Wii U's power]; the longer answer is not quite," said Wilson. "As every new piece of hardware and every new development library comes through we get a greater understanding of the power. With our early research we had been very happy with the output of the box and we expect that that will only go up moving forward.

"There are added challenges for us as developers when you think about rendering on two screens and what that might mean, but we're looking forward to that challenge.

"It's still moving," he added, "but I think we'll be able to do anything that we can do on PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 on the Wii U."

Xbox 360 launched in late 2005, and PS3 launched in late 2006 (March 2007 in Europe). More than five years on, can Wii U not go beyond what PS3 and 360 are capable of?

"I think that's our hope," answered Wilson, "but again we're still in the early stages."

""People will start talking about it being a transitional platform. And I don’t think that’s going to be the case, and here’s why," Moore told IndustryGamers. "I think the [tablet] controller [is huge]. This is not about specs anymore... This is about, as it was with the Wii, is the controller a unique way of enjoying a game experience, regardless of what the graphic fidelity is?"

""Look, you saw Battlefield - how much better could this stuff look at some point? There’s a point of diminishing returns... I don’t even know if there’s anything better than 1080p. In the early days of our industry, this stuff was absolutely about how much better the games looked - shinier helmets, greener grass – but I’ve been around long enough to know that seeing your breath in a football game is a huge deal. But that’s no longer the case any more," he said. "Now it’s about interfaces. Now it’s about building a community in a rich, powerful,way. And now it’s about, 'What is the way we can control the game?' You’ve seen that with Move, you’ve seen it with Wii MotionPlus more recently, and you’ve certainly seen it with Kinect."

"And Nintendo’s job, quite frankly, is to build a better mousetrap with regards to the way that we use the controller. So I don’t know what Xbox and PlayStation’s plans for their next platforms are, but it’s not going to be hanging on graphic fidelity. I guarantee you that."

"Sadly, the original quote was taken a bit out of context. Here's exactly what I meant: for what we need, and maybe for other developers, the Wii U's [capabilities] are more than sufficient for five to ten years. We're not making AAA games or using a crazy insane 3D engine, but the Wii U can definitely do both." - Tyrone Rodriguez, Nicalis

"In real terms, the Xbox 720's raw graphics processing power is expected to be six times that of the Xbox 360 and will yield 20-percent greater performance than Nintendo's forthcoming console, the Wii U."

Okay, so now that the WiiU is out, someone who now has one please tell me why I should care.

Nintendo Land is pretty fun, and gives a great cross-section of the sort of concepts that are possible with the pad. New Super Mario Bros is pretty entertaining too. I'm not running out to buy one yet, and I don't particularly think you should either, but hopefully somebody in your group of friends gets one so you can try it out in multiplayer. Maybe you'll have to take one for the team and be the person that buys it, I don't know.

I'm not going to buy it until a game that I need comes out, which tends to not happen until Zelda but it might end up being something else.

NSMBU:... It's Mario... nothing has changed beyond I can lay down in bed and play this game.

Nintendo Land: This is not that bad of a WiiU game, but I'd love to permanently mute that tour guide. Cool to see other miis walking around and see their stats

ZombiU: I played a bit today, going to need to restart though now that I've learned to play... and a zombie regrew its head and chomped me in one hit and I don't think that was part of the game...

Patching(Because I must mention this): I can actually do other stuff on the WiiU while a game patches! I can even take out the game and play a different one. Why doesn't the Xbox/PS3 have this feature? Seriously, that needs to be a standard now that it is proven I don't need to sit at that screen for a game to patch.

Patching(Because I must mention this): I can actually do other stuff on the WiiU while a game patches! I can even take out the game and play a different one. Why doesn't the Xbox/PS3 have this feature? Seriously, that needs to be a standard now that it is proven I don't need to sit at that screen for a game to patch.

Nice. I'm surprised someone didn't do this last generation, considering the consoles have enough power for at least some basic multitasking.

Honestly, Obsidian doesn't have much experience in the "Multiplayer RPG" space.

And actually, for a project like this, the people who play are going to be creating the content, more or less. You don't need a company who has been great at balancing single-player RPG content or one that has narrative chops, but one that is good at producing easy to use content creation tools, something that could on the lowest level give a blank slate players can drop a bunch of pre-made assets into.

You don't need a company who has been great at balancing single-player RPG content or one that has narrative chops, but one that is good at producing easy to use content creation tools, something that could on the lowest level give a blank slate players can drop a bunch of pre-made assets into.

"Not that bad" implies people generally don't think it's a good game, and so far I've only heard positive things about the game.

Yeah, I didn't have high hopes for it TBH. I thought it looked cool, but didn't think half the minigames would be of any good and I'd just go back to maybe 2 or 3, but so far I've enjoyed most of the ones I've played.